Independent review finds Framingham SWAT team not in error

Thursday

Sep 1, 2011 at 12:01 AMSep 1, 2011 at 1:04 AM

Officer Paul Duncan was trained to have his M4 rifle in safety mode unless he was ready to fire. But the SWAT team member wasn't necessarily wrong to have the safety off when he went to search Eurie Stamps Sr. for weapons during an early-morning drug raid, an expert has found.

Danielle Ameden/Daily News staff

Officer Paul Duncan was trained to have his M4 rifle in safety mode unless he was ready to fire. But the SWAT team member wasn't necessarily wrong to have the safety off when he went to search Eurie Stamps Sr. for weapons during an early-morning drug raid, an expert has found.

In his review of the Jan. 5 fatality released yesterday, Steve Ijames found that Duncan and the rest of the SWAT team may have been operating under conflicting rifle-handling guidelines.

The team's M4 rifle instructor told Ijames that officers are trained to keep their rifles on "safe" until they perceive a threat.

Lt. Michael Hill, in an internal Police Department report related to Stamps' death, recalled slightly different instructions: for the first officers entering a room to have safeties off - and rifles in semi-automatic mode - if they perceived a "possible" threat.

That qualifier is important, Ijames suggested.

"The key consideration here is that Officer Duncan removed his weapon from safe moments after entering 26 Fountain St." early on Jan. 5, Ijames wrote.

Authorities say Duncan shot and killed Stamps, a 68-year-old grandfather, when he lost his balance and accidentally pulled the trigger.

Stamps, who wasn't a target of the raid, was face-down in a dark hallway, and Duncan was moving to secure the man's hands behind his back when the shot was fired.

Ijames wrote, "The mechanical safety is what stands between good intentions and a potentially deadly outcome - but it can only do so when engaged."

Police Chief Steven Carl sought an outside review of the tactical and technical aspects of the Stamps shooting from Ijames, a SWAT expert and retired assistant police chief from Missouri.

The town's lawyer released Ijames' report yesterday, as well as Hill's internal report.

Ijames determined that Duncan and the other SWAT team members were well-trained, and that it was appropriate to use the heavily armed team to search 26 Fountain St.

He criticized the team, however, for failing to calculate a written formula (known as a SWAT threat-assessment matrix) beforehand to determine whether it needed to use that stealth. In the matrix, points are assigned based on questions such as whether targeted suspects have a record of violence, resisting arrest, drug use, mental problems, gang ties or a law enforcement or military background.

Using a SWAT team is considered optional under that formula if the tally is 1 to 16 points, while the commander weighs in if it totals 17 to 24 points. Team activation is considered necessary if the total is 25 or higher.

In this case, Deputy Chief Craig Davis, who is the team's commander, unilaterally decided to deploy the team because police expected one target, Dwayne Barrett, to be armed, according to the reports.

"In contrast, my understanding of the matrix is that mandatory SWAT activation only occurs when the weapon involved is believed to be fully automatic, which in this case it was not (handgun)," Ijames wrote.

The matrix "should have been physically completed and made a part of the agency file," Ijames wrote.

He said he calculated a threat assessment for the Fountain Street raid conservatively and came up with a total of 21, in which case Davis would have been consulted.

As a result of the raid, police arrested and charged Stamps' stepson, Joseph Bushfan, and Bushfan's cousin, Devon Tabert, but not Barrett.

The department's formula, Ijames wrote, is consistent with contemporary police practice for departments in evaluating whether to send in a SWAT team.

The SWAT team concept has changed since its origins in the late 1960s, he wrote, when the teams were used for counter-sniper and extremely high-risk situations involving rioting, public disorder and heavily armed or violent paramilitary groups.

After the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 was passed, SWAT has been used in other situations, such as drug raids.

"This evolutionary process has not been without criticism or controversy," Ijames wrote.

The Framingham SWAT team served one search warrant in 2006, three in 2007, five in 2008, one in 2009 and four in 2010, Ijames wrote, citing records.

The "minimal number of warrants served by SWAT in the five years (14) prior to the immediate case indicates that the Framingham Police Department is far more restrictive in its overall philosophy on authorizing the use of SWAT than most agencies today," Ijames wrote.

"This infrequent use should not be an indication of whether Framingham needs a SWAT team," he continued. "It is an indication of how focused SWAT command is on using the team only when believed to be truly needed - which should be commended as it is reflective of a level of caution and restraint that I rarely see in agencies today."

Ijames' report and the department's own report are in the hands of a panel of community leaders Carl assembled to review Stamps' death and work to restore confidence in the police department.

Town Counsel Chris Petrini said the town is also reviewing the documents.

"In general, the Ijames report and the internal affairs report did validate that the procedures in place were consistent with best practices and reasonable and appropriate" action, he said.

"That doesn't mean that things can't be reviewed or tweaked," he added.

In a cover letter, Ijames noted that he refused to accept pay for his report.

The town is expecting to defend a wrongful death suit from Stamps' family.

(Danielle Ameden can be reached at 508-626-4416 or dameden@wickedlocal.com.)